To add another reason for not storing dates as integers, doing any kind of date math means your queries are going to be slower. Just look at the simple example of finding who has a birthday this month. You have to add a cast(dob as datetime). This means that sql must look at every single row of the table. What happens when you have a million rows? We have datatypes for a number of reasons, they are not there to be a hindrance to your work. Use the proper datatypes for the data you are storing and you will find a lot of things in sql become much easier.